Samford Media Guide

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The 57th-ranked Samford University men's tennis team will face yet another tough Southern Conference home test Sunday at 9 a.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs square off against the undefeated Elon Phoenix in a momentous league contest to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.
 
Samford (7-6, 2-0 SoCon) also heads into the match boasting an undefeated record in conference play. So far this season, the Bulldogs have posted SoCon home victories against College of Charleston, 6-1, and UNCG, 4-3.
 
Samford has been dominant at home this year and owns a near-perfect 6-1 mark when playing at the Samford Tennis Center. The Bulldogs' lone loss at home this season was a 5-1 defeat versus the sixth-ranked Kentucky Wildcats on Feb. 24.
 
Samford enters Sunday's showdown with hopes of bouncing back from an 0-2 road trip at Louisiana-Lafayette and Tulane earlier this week. The Bulldogs fell short in a hard-fought 4-3 decision at Louisiana-Lafayette on Monday and then dropped a 6-1 contest at Tulane on Wednesday.
 
Against the Tulane Green Wave, Samford was swept in the doubles competition and then dropped singles decisions on the top five courts to suffer the 6-1 team loss.
 
Green Wave freshman Dominik Koepfer extended his singles winning streak to 14-consecutive matches Wednesday and remained undefeated this spring with a 14-0 record. Koepfer posted a 6-1, 6-1 win over Samford's Elliot Barnwell on court No. 2 to earn Tulane's second point of the afternoon.
 
Joe Young won for the second straight outing to clinch the match for the Green Wave. The senior defeated the Bulldogs' Fares Kilani, 7-5, 6-3, on court No. 3. Rodrigo Rappaccioli and Alex Van Cott also earned singles wins for Tulane.
 
Samford's lone point of the match was earned on court No. 6 as junior Garrison Laduca tallied a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (6) triumph over the Green Wave's Adam Bernstein. With his victory, Laduca improved to 6-6 in singles play this season and extended his team-best winning streak to four-consecutive triumphs.
 
Elon (9-4, 4-0 SoCon) heads into Sunday's contest as one of the hottest teams in the conference. The Phoenix is in the midst of a five-match winning streak and has been victorious in eight of its last nine outings. Since Feb. 10, Elon's lone loss occurred against USC Upstate, 4-3, on March 9.
 
Three of the Phoenix's four losses this season have come against opponents ranked in the top 40, including setbacks against No. 5 Duke, 9-0, No. 34 NC State, 4-3, and No. 36-ranked Wake Forest, 6-1.
 
On Wednesday, Elon played at home against Dartmouth and posted a thrilling 4-3 win at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. Tied at 3-3 with one match remaining, the Phoenix's Brian Kowalski pulled out the three-set victory, rallying for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision over Dartmouth's Brandon DeBot at No. 5 singles.
 
Elon won the doubles point Wednesday to take an early 1-0 lead against the Big Green. Cameron Silverman and Stefan Fortmann, ranked 34th in the nation as a doubles team, were the first to finish at No. 1, topping Xander Centenari and Brandon DeBot, 8-4. Kowalski and Robert Lindgren clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 decision versus Brendan Tannenbaum and Alex de Chatellus at No. 2.
 
Fortmann continued his solid play in singles to extend Elon's lead to 2-0 after defeating Chris Kipouras at No. 2 in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0. Fortmann has won eight straight matches and improves to 10-2 on the year with the win.
 
Silverman was the next to finish for the Phoenix as the nation's 38^th-ranked singles player claimed a 6-1, 6-3, victory at No. 1 versus Dartmouth's Centenari.
 
The Big Green stormed back to take the next three singles matches to tie the match at 3-3, but Kowalski proved to be resilient at No. 5 singles for the Phoenix, earning his fifth straight win.
 
Last season, Samford and Elon squared off in Elon, N.C., and the Bulldogs rallied for a pivotal 4-3 road victory. In the decisive singles match, the Bulldogs' Alex Sajonz battled past the Phoenix's Juan Madrid, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(6), in the No. 5 singles contest to clinch the hard-fought victory held at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
 
In last year's nail-biting triumph over the Phoenix, Samford jumped out to an early 3-1 lead by winning the doubles point and then receiving singles victories from Fernando Costa and Elliot Barnwell. Samford's Barnwell gave his squad a 3-1 advantage by outlasting the Phoenix's Jordan Kaufman, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, in the No. 3 singles contest.
 
Shortly after Barnwell's singles win gave Samford a 3-1 lead in the match, Elon bounced back with consecutive victories on courts Nos. 6 and 2 to even the score at 3-3.
 
Once the Phoenix tied the match at 3-3, all eyes shifted to court No. 5 where Sajonz and Madrid were doing battle for the decisive singles point. Madrid won the first set 7-5, but the Bulldogs' native of Kungsbacka, Sweden, rallied back to take the second frame, 6-4. In the all-important third set, Samford's Sajonz fought to an epic 7-6(6) triumph to clinch the Bulldogs' critical 4-3 team win.
 
Following Sunday's key SoCon matchup with Elon, the Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action Friday at 1:30 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs begin a momentous two-match road trip against the Davidson Wildcats to be held in Davidson, N.C.
 
Admission is FREE to all Samford home tennis matches.

Samford Media Guide